Personal automotive vehicles have evolved over several decades to require less attention from a human driver during vehicle operation. For instance, modern automobiles may be equipped with headlights that self-illuminate in low lighting conditions, windshield wipers that self-activate during rainy weather, or climate-control systems that automatically regulate the temperature of the passenger cabin, to name a few examples. Emerging technologies now enable automobiles to continuously monitor surrounding road and traffic conditions, have real-time knowledge regarding the global position of the vehicle, and to control vehicle acceleration, braking, and navigation based on this information. The trend is toward fully autonomous vehicles, in which little to no attention to vehicle operation is required from vehicle occupants once a destination for the vehicle is determined. In such vehicles, vehicle occupants are free to turn their attention to matters other than driving, such as work-related tasks, entertainment, or relaxation.
During the transition from traditional driver-operated vehicles to fully autonomous vehicles, reconfigurable passenger cabins may be employed to accommodate both a driver mode and an autonomous mode. With driver attention to vehicle operation not required in the autonomous mode, the driver may wish to assume a different or more comfortable seating position than the one required during traditional vehicle operation, in which driver feet must be near the accelerator and brake pedal and driver arms must be able to reach and turn the steering wheel, operate turn signals, etc. Indeed, in traditional driver-operated vehicles, there is very little room available for occupants to assume different seating positions. This is particularly true in the front row of seats where the driver and/or passenger is closely surrounded by a center console, instrument panel(s), arm rests, and steering wheel. It may thus become desirable to increase the amount of free space surrounding the vehicle occupants in the autonomous vehicle mode to allow more freedom of movement. This comes with a whole new set of problems not before encountered in a vehicle passenger cabin.
Various rotating vehicle seat configurations have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,141 to Hanemaayer discloses a driver seat in a recreational vehicle that can rotate 360° to double as a dinette chair or bed when the recreational vehicle is parked. U.S. Pat. No. 5,707,103 to Balk discloses a rear vehicle seat that, when the seat bottom is folded-up, can rotate to a stored position along one side of the interior of the passenger cabin to provide increased usable cargo space in the cabin. U.S. Pat. No. 6,981,746 to Chang et al. discloses a front vehicle seat that rotates more than 90° toward a vehicle door to provide easier passenger ingress or egress, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,204,554 to Wieclawski et al. discloses a vehicle seat that rotates 35-60° toward a vehicle door for similar reasons.